Simiyu is a night guard at Ngumo estate. His shift begins at dusk, after a long day of hard labour in the city, digging up pits for the installation of fibre optic cables.

Simiyu is forced to split his energy between his job as a Security guard which pays him a meagre 8000 kenya shillings and supplementary side hustles that can help offset the overbearing burden of bills and expectations from his dependants. Simiyu is adamant on working during the night shift. He gets to his post on his bicycle,aching bones and muscles after a long day of hard labour at the day’s odd job.

Ending his side hustle late he doesn’t get to shower and freshen up, forced to stew in the scent of the day’s hard work, and boy does he stew. He changes into his uniform, a badge of servitude ready to work…but work turns into sleep. What is to be expected after a long day of duress? Sometimes he is forced to report to duty on an empty stomach, his hard work and sweat an offering at the altar of responsibility to his dependants and a sacrifice and denial of himself.

Simiyu shouldn’t be sleeping on the job, if he is discovered he is likely to be sacked. But that is not the worst that could happen, Simiyu could be killed on duty if on this day he is asleep, thugs happen to roll by; his work is dangerous yet he has little to guard himself with. Worst off, plagued by the frustration of poor working conditions and inadequate pay, Simiyu could easily exit into a world of crime.

The private security industry is among the largest source of employment both in Kenya and in Africa.According to the KNSPWU, the industry employs up to 300,000 security guards, in comparison to the police force which has 60,000 police countrywide. That makes 300,000 cases of Simiyu. According to the uni global movement, an international union of labour organisations, jobs in the security sector are “highly sought after”, with a company like Securex having weekly recruitment drives in which 500 people including University graduates show up.

Out of these 500 hopefuls, only 50 people make the cut. To put the story into greater perspective, the Security industry supports up to 1.2 million Kenyans from an income of 10,000 Kenya shillings ( Murunga, 2011), less than the minimum wage which stands at 10,912 Kenya shillings. What picture does such a statistic paint of the state of dignity for 1.2 million Kenyans?

Dignity is essential to human beings. It manifests itself in the ability to feed yourself and those that are dependent on you and in your capacity to protect yourself and your kin from the elements and external dangers. More importantly, it manifests itself as basic human contact, in being able to be acknowledged and respected as a member of the human fraternity, in a smile, eye contact, kindness and empathy.

What does dignity have to do with Simiyu’s struggles? Where is the dignity when Simiyu is paid 8000 shillings and is expected to feed himself and his family, put his children through school all while protecting us from the night’s possible dangers? Where is the dignity in our day to day treatment of security guards like Simiyu,whose struggles we fail to acknowledge; grumbling when we have to be frisked or vetted, while these individuals are only fulfilling their mandates?

After obsessing on the plight of Security guards for a few months ( in addition to many other hair brained schemes, as I tend to think about too many projects all at once), I came up with an idea that has the potential to help Security guards, around Nairobi and eventually the whole of Kenya.

This idea was inspired by a spat in house hunting. The reality of basic house hunting for most young Nairobians is the exhausting leg work characterized by walks through potential neighbourhoods, knocks on gates and enquiries posed to Security guards at the gates of estates.” Hapa kunaeza kuwa na vacancy?”(Is there a vacancy here?)The alternative route wouldn’t be all that different, a process commandeered by housing agents who get a commission off houses that successfully secure a tenant. The information that provides these agents a killing is often times provided by security guards at the gate, who get nothing out of this information.

“Why can’t Security guards earn some extra money out of the information they provide? They are well informed, stationed on the ground and more importantly in actual need of an extra revenue stream.” The solution? The creation of a platform with real time information fielded by security guards on the ground about vacancies within their post. This solution is multi pronged; providing an unconventional alternative revenue stream for Security guards who would get a commission and finder’s fee of successful matches; an up to date database of real estate vacancies around the country; and savings on time and energy for real estate companies and potential landlords.

Over and above these practical solutions, at the core of this initiative is the hope to inspire unconventional solutions, and to stimulate creative means of adding additional income to blue collar job workers.

One hopes that a person who becomes a security guard need not be one for the rest of his life, to innovate the capacity to chart a brighter future for themselves and their kin. All honest work is dignified, and need not be looked down upon, and all honest hard work needs to be honoured with honest and dignified pay.

To make this idea a success I need your help,in raising awareness on the existence of the platform and by posting your request for housing on the website or any other side hustle you might have.

Go ahead and post a side hustle for Simiyu at sidehustle.co.ke
#getsimiyuasidehustle

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How to make money with Olx Kenya

Olx Kenya as explained in the previous posts is an online classifieds where buyers meet sellers that’s the main purpose or rather that’s how Olx Kenya markets itself as the place to sell new and old products for free.

we all know buying and selling products online isn’t easy as it Olx Kenya might make it sound from the adverts,if it was everyone would be sitting online making money from their mansions. It’s a little harder than that as you need to have money to buy the products to sell to make money with olx Kenya and you need to also be able to pick the right product to sell or you will be stuck with dead stock that no one wants to buy.

How to make money with olx kenya without products to sell

Here are few ways you can make money with Olx kenya without buying or selling products.

Offer a services- Olx Kenya much like sidehustle.co.ke allows you to post services that you offer that can range from book keeping,graphic design and cleaning, it all depends on what you can do.You can actually make some decent money if you do it right.As Olx Kenya has more of sellers you can offer services that are related to the most sold and posted products on OLX Kenya .

Be a broker- You can make money with Olx Kenya by been a broker,currently in Kenya only 40% of the population own smartphones meaning less then half percent of Kenyans can access Olx Kenya but with the excessive marketing Olx Kenya has been doing every one who wants to make money with Olx Kenya by selling their products on Olx Kenya.So what you would need to do is move around Kenya from one market to another and offer traders that don’t have smartphones the service of putting their products on Olx Kenya which you would do by taking pictures of their products uploading them on Olx Kenya and writing captivating descriptions to ensure that their products are sold and you would either charge them a commission for every product you sell or you can charge them a standard fee.A good example would be the Masai market as a large number of the traders don’t have smartphones but they have products they would like to sell and competition is very high in the markets they sell their products and some times the customers coming to the market aren’t many.

There you have two ways to make money with olx kenya without buying or selling products and don’t forget to register with sidehustle.co.ke and convert your free time to extra money.

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The school district in West Jordan is enjoying some good news about the revenue earned from advertisements on the school buses. Hundreds of students within the district get on school buses each and every day to get to and from school. These school buses, however, are now displaying different kinds of advertisements. One seventh grade student, Trevor Davies, was asked for his take on the school bus advertising. Davies said, “It’s all right, it doesn’t affect me.” The truth is that a large number of children probably are not paying too much attention to the advertisements but in the meantime, these advertisements are bringing in a whole lot of revenue for the Jordan School District, which is causing other school districts to take an interest in advertising on their school buses as well.

The school district has been featuring the advertisements on its school buses for about six months now and has already been able to earn a total of $35,000 in revenue. The school district will be able to spend $22,000 of the revenue earned while the rest of the money will go to the advertising company for the school district. Jordan has been the first school district in this state to allow advertisements to be featured on school buses after a passage was created in 2011, allowing such advertisements to be displayed on the school buses. There are several other states that are also allowing these advertisements on school buses.

The director of transportation, Herb Jensen, has said, “The nice thing about the advertising is it’s a revenue source for school districts that doesn’t tap into taxpayers having to pay additional taxes.” Jensen feels quite hopeful that the advertisements are going to help the school district bring in even more money because the school year has recently started. Jensen said that the advertisement sales were slower in the beginning, specifically during the month of April but that was because several companies felt hesitant to make such an investment when they knew that summer break would be approaching in a short period of time. At this point in time, however, over 20 buses within the school district are now featuring advertisements.

With the new law put in place, school districts are advised to use some of the money earned from school bus advertising directly back into the cost of transportation for students. Jensen has said, however, that the school district is now putting in less money for transportation because of the revenue earned and because so much revenue is being earned, the district could end up with more money that can be used for a number of other things which will ultimately benefit the students.

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Safaricom’s creative and media agency, Scanad, has lodged a complaint against rival Telkom Kenya’s advertisement, underlining the intense battle for market share between mobile phone operater.Scanad has petitioned the Advertising Standards Body of Kenya (ASBK) to take action on Orange for aggressive advertising that has involved use of Safaricom’s SIM cards, call rates and corporate colours to market its own services.

The agency wants ASBK to compel Orange to withdraw the advertisements, which are meant to lure Safaricom subscribers to Telkom.

Telkom Kenya went on the war path last month in a commercial that uses a green SIM card similar to those of Safaricom to depict the rival as the most expensive network while using its orange corporate colour to show its network as the cheapest.

“It’s more affordable to call other networks from Orange than calling within that network. So get an Orange line,” says Telkom Kenya in the advertisement that began running from January 8.

Telkom Kenya CEO Mickael Ghossein said on Friday Safaricom has faulted the promotion and called for its withdrawal.

“In the advert our key massage is for the consumer to make a decision by comparing our tariffs with what our rivals are charging and we not targeting Safaricom as they claim. Kenya is a multi SIM card market,” said Mr Ghossein.

Telkom shows that calls from Safaricom are pegged at Sh4 a minute while it charges Sh3 to reach rival networks and Sh2 between its subscribers.

Orange’s creative agency is handled by AccessLeo while Safaricom’s is done by Scanad, an affiliate of Scangroup.

Kenya’s commercial law is silent on this type of advertising, leaving Safaricom in a difficult position that it has tried to navigate by complaining to the advertiser’s body.

ASBK was formed in 2003 by players in the marketing and advertising sector to guard against false, negative, and obscene advertisements as well as offending commercials from competitors.

The row echoes the 2010 dispute pitting Safaricom against Airtel, which triggered deep cuts in text message and call costs.

mantra

s charges.

Airtel’s campaign has included jibes at Safaricom with a declaration that “Going green is not always the better option…” taking from Safaricom’s marketing slogan “the Better Option,” and its corporate green colour.

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Old Spice unveiled a hilarious new commercial that’s up there with some of the brand’s best (and zaniest) work.

The spot, called “Momsong,” features moms creeping on their teenage sons’ dates, and mourning the loss of their childhood because “Old Spice sprayed them into men.”

It’s hilarious and original and slightly terrifying.

The men’s hygiene brand is known for its Emmy Award-winning, comedic-genius spots. Remember smooth-talking beefcake Isaiah Mustafa in the “Smell Like a Man, Man” commercials? The guy who dives into waterfalls, looks great in a bath towel, and rides a horse.

While “Momsong” lacks Mustafa, there’s no shortage of impressive stunts. One mom disguises herself as a Chucky-looking custodian while spying on her son at school, and another freefalls while playing the violin.

topseos.com has declared Internet Search Engine Advertising the 10th top pay per click management service in the December 2013 edition of the rankings. The rankings are formulated through a thorough analysis of the core services provided by each service. Businesses looking for effective pay per click management firms turn to topseos.com to find firms which have been evaluated by an independent third party.

The process for researching and declaring the best services offering PPC management services involves a meticulous investigation of the vital proficiencies of each contesting search engine marketing firm. The five areas of investigation associated with successful PPC management projects include campaign analysis, create effective ads, keyword selection, CPA minimization, and automation. The results of the investigation process are used to identify the placement of services on the rankings.

The independent investigation team spends time analyzing the search engine marketing industry as a whole to better interpret how contesting PPC management consultants influence the industry. Time is spent attending various conference events to obtain a wider interpretation of the industry and to connect directly with PPC management consultants in a neutral setting. Client referrals are often used as another metric to identify which PPC management consultants offer the best services.

Customers of search engine marketing services often turn to topseos.com when hunting for talented pay per click management consultants. The independent research team has announced Internet Search Engine Advertising as the 10th top pay per click management consultant based on the results of the examination process. topseos.com strongly believes in the pay per click management services provided by Internet Search Engine Advertising and has preferred them for businesses looking for the most talented services.

About Internet Search Engine Advertising

Internet Search Engine Advertising, LLC provides a unique pay per click management service which has shown an ability to maximize the return from pay per click advertising through management techniques which identify the most important keywords and selecting the appropriate landing pages for each advertisement to maximize the PPC potential.

About topseos.com

topseos.com is an online purveyor of independent reviews and ratings. The ratings of the best search marketing firms are released monthly to assist businesses in connecting with PPC management firms which feature a history of effective services. Thousands of search marketing firms are put to the test while only the absolute best firms are showcased in the ratings.

For the listings of the top pay per click management consultants visit:

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The school district in West Jordan is enjoying some good news about the revenue earned from advertisements on the school buses. Hundreds of students within the district get on school buses each and every day to get to and from school. These school buses, however, are now displaying different kinds of advertisements. One seventh grade student, Trevor Davies, was asked for his take on the school bus advertising. Davies said, “It’s all right, it doesn’t affect me.” The truth is that a large number of children probably are not paying too much attention to the advertisements but in the meantime, these advertisements are bringing in a whole lot of revenue for the Jordan School District, which is causing other school districts to take an interest in advertising on their school buses as well.

The school district has been featuring the advertisements on its school buses for about six months now and has already been able to earn a total of $35,000 in revenue. The school district will be able to spend $22,000 of the revenue earned while the rest of the money will go to the advertising company for the school district. Jordan has been the first school district in this state to allow advertisements to be featured on school buses after a passage was created in 2011, allowing such advertisements to be displayed on the school buses. There are several other states that are also allowing these advertisements on school buses.

The director of transportation, Herb Jensen, has said, “The nice thing about the advertising is it’s a revenue source for school districts that doesn’t tap into taxpayers having to pay additional taxes.” Jensen feels quite hopeful that the advertisements are going to help the school district bring in even more money because the school year has recently started. Jensen said that the advertisement sales were slower in the beginning, specifically during the month of April but that was because several companies felt hesitant to make such an investment when they knew that summer break would be approaching in a short period of time. At this point in time, however, over 20 buses within the school district are now featuring advertisements.

With the new law put in place, school districts are advised to use some of the money earned from school bus advertising directly back into the cost of transportation for students. Jensen has said, however, that the school district is now putting in less money for transportation because of the revenue earned and because so much revenue is being earned, the district could end up with more money that can be used for a number of other things which will ultimately benefit the students.